A cross section of players of the senior national team of Nigeria have
kicked against the decision of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to
sack coach of the team Gernot Rohr.
Rohr has been told his services is no longer needed and he has already
communicated via text messages to his players wishing them the best in
their future endeavours.
Reacting to the news which was first revealed by this portal, a senior
player in the team faulted the timing of the sack insisting that the players
knew what went wrong during the qualifiers that made the team play
poorly.
” We are few weeks to camping for the Africa Cup of Nations. Then the
tournament and the World Cup play off. Sacking our coach now makes
no sense. We know why we played poorly during the World Cup
qualifiers. It wasn’t Rohr’s fault”, he said.
Another player who recently fell out of favour voiced same sentiments
saying the players need to look themselves in the face and say the truth
on why the team played poorly during the World Cup qualifiers.
” If as a group we decide to be honest many will tell you Rohr isn’t the
issue. He did his best to carry all along but some players have people in
high places and what they can’t do at their clubsides is what they are
comfortable doing in camp. Most times a day to game or even the
morning before games”, he said.
A goalkeeper in the same team also shared his view on the decision
calling it a poor decision by all standard and like the others warns the
NFF of the implications of sacking Rohr now.
” Africa Cup Of Nations is in January. We don’t have a coach three
weeks to the start of camping. This is poor timing and the NFF should
know this. They know how they divided the team and it showed on the
pitch. This is beyond Rohr”, he concluded.
Credit: Owngoal Nigeria 